love

love is a funny feeling, a heavy word, and a powerful action. lately i have been wondering if love ever gets old. is there a point at which you can have too much love? do you know how words and phrases, when they are used too much, lose their meaning and power? could that happen with love?

if someone held your face in their hands and looked you in the eyes and said "i love you" every day for the rest of your life, would you ever get tired of hearing it?

alternatively, if you never heard someone tell you they love you for the rest of your life, would you miss it?

has love become one of those words that we say to each other so often that we don't really hear them or feel the full impact of their meaning?

i am amazed every day that my capacity for love keeps growing. i feel so full of love that sometimes it hurts, like growing pains, as if there is some sort of container inside of me that gets stretched bigger and bigger with each encounter.

there has been enough loss of life and relationship along my journey for me to realize that speaking aloud to another person that they are loved, and allowing that to carry its full weight, is an opportunity that we don't have forever. people die, people move, friendships end and people change. in light of this, my hope is that others look back on whatever time they spent with me and know that for whatever period of time we had together, i loved them.

i use the word love frequently with my family and friends. and when i say it, i mean it. i hope that it never becomes a word that loses its meaning when people hear it from my mouth. i hope that when i say it, i convey the fullness of its meaning with the way that i live and treat others. i hope that the people who have filled me with so much love know how deeply their love has seeped into my soul, and that i don't take it for granted.

full.